Burlington And Halton Challenge The Nelson Quarry Expansion Ruling

The fight over the Burlington Quarry near Mount Nemo is going back into the legal system. The city said this week it will ask the Ontario Land Tribunal to review its own August 18 decision, the one that let Nelson Aggregate expand onto land to the south and west, and will separately seek a judicial review in Ontario's Divisional Court. Halton Region intends to pursue both routes too, mainly in support of Burlington.

The tribunal sided with Nelson in August. The company argued the expansion keeps a close-to-market supply of aggregate available for the western end of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, and told the tribunal its monitoring and mitigation measures deal with the concerns raised about groundwater, natural heritage, air quality and blasting. The tribunal found the expansion consistent with provincial planning policy and accepted those measures.

Aggregate is the sand, gravel and crushed stone that goes into concrete and asphalt, and into roads, bridges and buildings, which is why the supply question carries weight with the province at the moment.

Nelson also points further out. Once extraction and rehabilitation are finished, a process it expects to phase over about 30 years, the quarry lands are planned to go to Conservation Halton, which the company says could open up close to 1,000 acres of public parkland. Burlington's objection has not moved: groundwater, wildlife, the natural environment, the people living nearby and the rural community around it.